It's the standard definition as far as I can tell. What other meaning are you thinking of?

What rhhardin said at 5:03.

Also, if you google around, ignoring Urban Dictionary, you will find all kinds of innocuous meanings for the idiom, some of which stem from religious people. Now, I agree that Romney was probably chiding him, but in the sense that rhhardin suggested. Perhaps I'm biased because my ear was trained in the north and so was Romeny's I believe.

It's condescending, but in a kindly not a vicious way. I'd bet it was meant to be mildly offensive to an overly sensitive person. If a southern woman had said it to another southern woman it would be much different.

The Rust Belt Dictionary lists "Bless His Heart" phrase as one which means no matter how hard the 4th string QB tries to run the first string offense he will only do as well as his 4th string abilities allow. We used that phrase all of the time in Michigan so it is not just a southern thing, unless writing from the North Pole. Sort of good intentions lining the road to hell, but in this case I am not sure the One's intentions are indeed good for America.

Obama is our 4th String QB, and he is incapable of running our first class and world class economy. Time to bench him and hand the offense over to Mitt.

It is used most often as a substitute for "how pathetic". Someone so inept that they are deserving of sympathy but will probably get ridicule instead. At least, that I how it has been used in the southeast for the last couple of decades. I hear it all the time there. Rarely, if ever, in the midwest or northeast.

Bless his heart is more about incompetence, in the North, as if of a child. The possibility of growing is not closed off.

This is also how it is used in the South.

However, it also has an alternative, non-insulting meaning. It can also be used to recognize that someone is overwhelmed. Such as:

"Rhonda is busy these days. She is organizing the charity food drive, the 5k, the women's Bible study, and the youth ministry for her church. Also, her husband was just laid off, so she's gone back to work full time. Plus, her partners in the dog rescue just moved, so she has twenty dogs. Additionally, her roof caved in, and she's covered with boils.""Bless her heart!"

In the South, "Bless his heart" is all about context and verbal nuance. It can be particularly cutting, and usually is. But it can also be applied to situations where great, well meaning effort has resulted in less than adequate results. It totally depends on the circumstances. Many were the times in my youth that I heard Robert E. Lee referred to in this way, usually accompanied with a sigh on the part of women.

Race is no barrier in the use of this term, though the context can tend to shift subtly. It undoubtly traveled North to Chicago with the Great Migration, and I'm sure Obama is very much aware of how Romney cut him of at the knees using it. Very effective on Romney's part.

I've always seen "well bless his or her heart" in the context of a Southern matron who will say the most terrible things; "that woman is ugly as a speckled pup, is the biggest slut in town, and is dumber than dirt" --while all this calumny is forgiven by adding "Bless her heart"

Romney has just said that The Bamster is as dumb as a box of rocks, runs a dirtier campaign than the Chicago Sewer Department, and has a campaign staff that regularly buggers little boys and girls--but "Bless his heart".

You seem awfully sensitive to what Democrats say. And I couldn't find the Obama "sit down and shut up" remark. Sure you're not imagining it?

Not sensitive, merely cognizant. That way, I can make intelligent comments on political threads. If I only knew what Republicans say and treated it as Gospel, relatively speaking, I'd be...you.

You do seem awfully lazy and stupid, as one might expect a Lib to be. But the good folks at Google can help your stunted skills. Just type in things called "key words" and they give results, like these below.

BTW, I do this only to point out how ill-informed you are and how much hubris (Webster's) and chutzpah (also Webster's) you display when you keep claiming like a choad (Urban Dictionary) that because you have no knowledge of a thing, that thing must not be. Even to the point of refusing the evidence presented as proof that the thing actually exists (see your willful ignorance regarding Bush Assassination Fantasy thread).

There will be no further free research, as I am done with you, except to deride and scorn you for voting for Barack Obama.

Obama's words are in quotes, the rest is relevant context:

...He said Republicans had driven the economy into a ditch and then stood by and criticized while Democrats pulled it out. Now that progress has been made, he said, “we can’t have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.”

..."Another way of putting it is when I'm busy and Nancy is busy with our mop, cleaning up somebody else's mess –- we don't want somebody sitting back saying, you're not holding the mop the right way. Why don't you grab a mop, why don't you help clean up."

"I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess,”

"You do seem awfully lazy and stupid, as one might expect a Lib to be. But the good folks at Google can help your stunted skills. Just type in things called "key words" and they give results, like these below."

I heard "bless your/his/her heart" a lot when I was growing up (Mom grew up in rural WV). It seemed to me to be a very versatile phrase - its meaning ranging from condescending or dismissive (someone just doesn't get it)to meaning that someone is simply in over their head, in which case BHH was not unkindly meant at all.

If the "Urban Dictionary" is to be considered a standard, then there is no standard at all. We lose a lot of good words when we permit anyone and everyone to define standards on a whim. We lost a lot of perfectly good words to the civil and human "rights" movements and to progressive corruption in general.

Oh well. We live under a tyranny of a minority, where thought crimes are part of a business and political model.

I've always seen "well bless his or her heart" in the context of a Southern matron who will say the most terrible things; "that woman is ugly as a speckled pup, is the biggest slut in town, and is dumber than dirt" --while all this calumny is forgiven by adding "Bless her heart"

Heh. Yes, this is generally how I use it. I've also heard Freemans version.

Romney used it exactly the way I've always heard it. It's saying the person does his best, but the results are what they are. In my experience, it's more of a term of endearment with pity. I often hear it after sex.

Their forecast suggests that President Obama will lose in almost all of the swing states, including North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida…

It's cocky, but I really hope it happens. Landslides need to happen every once and a while and on both sides. It's good for country unity. I'll bet there are a fair number of people out there who can't even remember the last one--I even voted for the losing side.

I have to say conservatives have been remarkable confident about their chances, even though I've yet to see a electoral map showing Romney ahead. On top of that Ryan provided no bump for Romney nationally and a hurricane is headed to their convention.

Garage, wait until the media turns on Obama. They can do it under guise of doing their job right for a change, when all they really will want is to be on the winning side. Your most powerful and reliable ally is getting wobbly. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Exactly. Jake Tapper called it the other day. He as much as said that 2008 was unfair media coverage. If the MSM actually figures out that more people will watch them if they stop shilling, who or what's going to stop them?

GM! You do realize that Zero has been spending his election funds into the red with Romney spending practically nothing right? And yet the Zero hasn't done anything other than keep a tie with Mittens, a candidate whose base is pretty blase about? What little movement has been is Zero slipping in the polls, but it's within the margin of error. Until you remove the weighting the D's are being given by the pollsters.

Why would they be weighting D's you ask? To sell papers,pure and simple. More than they want Zero elected they want, no, they crave ratings. Like a heroin addict needs his horse. So they prop up the angry sock monkey with weighted polls so that gullible people(dem's and independents) will watch.

The anchors don't mind because they are rootin' for Zero anyway. Look at the internals of the polls, the truth is there. Zero will lose, by a comfortable margin...besides uber-libs and minorities, who would vote for him?

The media, like most people, hate Romney because he is such an insufferable dick. And the Golden Boy is getting exposed as the far right Ayn Rand zealot that he his. Finally. I don't think that adds up to a R win.

If Obama wins, you guys should start up the process of having California removed from the union. 55 Electoral votes that are in the hands of what is clearly the stupidest, most irresponsible electorate ever to sit in glorious sunshine smoking sticky buds of medicinal inspiration. And, we just might be the basket of hay on the fiscal disaster camel's back. You really need to get rid of us. What's the word for forced secession? Eviction? OK, evict us, we deserve it. If we were a Kennedy, we'd be lobotomized by now.

Romney's use of it is consistent with how I see him vs. Obama. Obama is like a teenager who Mom thought could maybe handle staying home alone over the weekend, but he set the kitchen on fire and, oops!, let the pothead from down the street move into the basement. Bless his heart for trying, but thank God dad's home now and can get this mess straightened out.

The media, like most people, hate Romney because he is such an insufferable dick. And the Golden Boy is getting exposed as the far right Ayn Rand zealot that he his. Finally. I don't think that adds up to a R win.

1) "Insufferable dicks" are in the eyes of the beholder. Since 2008, many more people (including MSM journalists, who've been treated like dirt by Obama) have come to see Obama as one.

2) When younger, Ryan read and appreciated some of the political insights found in Rand novels.

When younger, Obama found friends and political mentors among the likes of Ayers and Dohrn.

Americans elected Obama POTUS. I don't think they'd have a problem electing Ryan as VP.

Know what's even funnier? The same exact people that accuse me of predicting a Walker loss also accuse me of going away for two weeks because I knew Walker would win. I wonder if they even know they do it?

Chikelit said,Exactly. Jake Tapper called it the other day. He as much as said that 2008 was unfair media coverage. If the MSM actually figures out that more people will watch them if they stop shilling, who or what's going to stop them?

I’m not so sure that viewership is a deciding factor. But if they think that Romney stands a decent chance to win (and actually does win), then they may no longer wish to be lap-dog shills, but would then prefer to be aggressive watch-dogs.

"Yet none of the independent rugged conservatives that complain about California want to move out."

"California has lost over 720,000 taxpayers 48 billion of AGI from us migration from 1993-2008."

That was before the crash when things were going well. They have been moving out in droves for a long time, and the budget shows it.

I've been working hard to find a way to move with my entire business and it's 100 taxpayers, and I'd save millions in a very short time, but my employees have roots too deep here to force them into that just to save money, and the business exist for them.

My employees' standard of living would double with a 300 mile move to Las Vegas, but I haven't sold them on it yet. I would hate Las Vegas' 110 degrees summers, but I could buy a lot of air conditioning for the taxes I'd save.

Most people in California have a kind of emotional attachment to the idea of being here, and it has a lot of great assets, but even if your battering spouse cleans up real nice on the weekend, they still beat you most nights, because they think you'll never leave them. They have been wrong for a long time, and it might be too late now, so the talk is starting top get serious about state bankruptcy.

"Bless your heart" is all of a peice with "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" which our mothers have drilled into us all our lives. "Bless your heart" is what we say when we can't say anything nice.

Truck drivers like Bernard Garcia say they feel governmental regulations on trucking keeps them safe. Garcia is an eight-year veteran of highway hauling. In years’ past, he said drivers like his uncle would put the pedal to the metal to meet demands.

"He’d go to California and back and be back in three days, God bless his heart, rest his soul. Back then they didn’t have the law books," said Garcia, "and he’d just drive and drive and drive."